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Chapter 6
House was frozen by the time he arrived at the restaurant. He had only worn a light coat, not thinking much about the weather when he left home this morning. He walked into the softly lit room and was greeted by an attractive red headed woman he didn't remember seeing in the restaurant before. She gave him a pretty smile and led him to a table for two next to the large stone fireplace. He took off his coat and sat down, welcoming the warmth of the glowing fire. A waiter promptly stopped by his table to take his drink order, which of course he ordered his favorite, scotch on the rocks. He glanced at his watch. It was ten minutes until five. He took out the orange vial that was stuffed in his pocket and shook out two little white pills into the palm of his hand. He popped them into his mouth, not waiting for his drink. He couldn't deny the fluttering in his stomach and scolded himself for being nervous.
He looked around the room and saw that it wasn't busy yet. A good sign that he and Cameron wouldn't have to wait too long for their food, which was a good thing since he was already starving. When the waiter sat his drink down in front of him, he gladly took a big sip, letting the fiery liquid slowly slide down his throat.
He leaned back in his chair and felt the alcohol starting to do its job, helping him to finally relax. Across the room, the red headed hostess shot him another smile and this time he returned the smile, thinking how attractive she was. However, as if on cue, thoughts of Cameron conspicuously began to fill his mind taking his attention away from the woman across the room. He wondered what had gone through Cameron's curious mind after he had asked her to meet him tonight? The thought of her spending the day, trying to figure out what he was up to, almost made him laugh out loud. It also didn't take a rocket scientist for those who were paying attention to notice that he had been showing up in the ER more since she was running things now. He always had some kind of an excuse for being there; either he wanted her input on a case or he needed a new case or sometimes it was just to harass her but the real reason was he had an unexplained need to be around her. I miss her, he finally admitted and for the first time in a very long time, he thought about the night she gave him her resignation letter.
He took another sip of his drink and let his mind wander back to that night. He remembered it like it had happened yesterday. It had been a very bad day, not to mention a very bad week. He had just finished another grueling meeting with Cuddy and all he wanted to do was to just grab his stuff and get out of there. As he approached his office, he could see Cameron sitting at his desk, usually a sign that he was in trouble with her, but this wasn't the case on that night. He had stood outside his door and watched her for a minute before entering, noticing how the light from the lamp that sat on his desk had cast a soft glow around her. He pushed the door open slowly and the air in the room had felt heavy with the weight of her thoughts and he instantly knew something was amiss. She looked up and smiled warmly at him as he walked towards his desk. He was just about to say something sarcastic when she stood and gave him one of those looks that he knew so well. It was a look of finality. She moved slowly towards him and placed the letter in his hand and as if she was sensing he was going to say something pungent she stopped him and told him it was her resignation. He instantly felt a burning sensation inside as if someone had punched him in the gut. He had been totally caught off guard and didn't know what to say except to ask if she was quitting because he had fired Chase but she denied that was the reason. He knew he should have said something clever that would have made her rethink her decision but she had been so convincing when she said that she was ready to leave. Then she placed her hand on his arm and looked at him intently, telling him that she was going to miss him. That touch… her touch, was burned into his skin, leaving a lasting affect on him. There were times he could still feel that touch. He kept his back to her and refused to watch her walk away.
After she left his office he held her letter in his hand for a very long time, afraid to open it… afraid of the words that were no doubt carefully chosen and written. He stuffed it in his bag and went home and drank almost an entire bottle of scotch, not wanting to feel the emptiness over her leaving, hoping he would wake up the next day and find it had only been a dream. Instead, he woke the next morning with a headache from hell and found the letter still stuffed in his bag. He took it out and placed it in between the worn pages of the gray book, high on his bookshelf, still unopened to this day. Her leaving had done something to him he hadn't expected. It had made him feel something he hadn't wanted to feel and it took him a while to convince himself that he didn't have any feelings for her. And now, he was about to face his demon head on and ask her to return.
He suddenly had a thought that maybe this wasn't such a good idea. He took another sip of his drink and quickly dismissed the thought and began to think about how he should bring the subject up without sounding like an idiot. He had to be careful, she had the ability to read him, sometimes better than he was able to read himself and he didn't want her to think there were any other reasons for asking her back. He was absolutely sure that he only wanted her to return for the reasons already said and there was nothing else lurking in that dark mind of his.
He finished his drink and scolded himself for filling his head with doubt. He was not the kind of person who doubted his decisions too often. He looked at his watch again. It was now five twenty three. The waiter stopped by his table again and asked if he wanted another drink. He thought for a moment. If memory served him correctly, Cameron liked wine. He ordered another scotch for himself and a glass of Cabernet for Cameron… and waited.
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Cameron finished her shift right at five o'clock and quickly headed to her locker. She was anxious to change her clothes and get out of there. She wished she knew what House's proposition was about, she wondered as she slipped on the white sweater and a pair of black jeans that were tucked away in the back of her locker. A ploy to help him manipulate someone, no doubt. But he did offer her dinner, so it had to be good and she had to admit having dinner with him wasn't a bad way to spend the evening. She stepped over to the sink to brush her teeth and touch up her makeup.
After resigning a little over eight months ago, she hadn't really let herself think about him much. It would have been so easy for her to let her thoughts travel down that road again, but she needed to move on and the only way to do that was to not think about him. However, it hadn't been so easy lately with him showing up in the ER more and more. Every time he showed up, her heart would start pounding hard against her chest and she would become distracted. It pissed her off that he still had that much of an affect on her.
She removed the barrette from her hair, letting the blonde curls fall to the middle of her back. She ran her fingers through it, deciding to leave it down; spritzed on some vanilla body spray and applied a little lip gloss for the final touch. She stepped back and looked at herself in the mirror. Not bad, she thought. She hoped she would be able to pull off the evening without revealing how nervous she was. She grabbed her purse and shut her locker door. As she was putting on her coat, she briefly thought about Chase. She had given him a call earlier to let him know she was going out to dinner with a friend but she didn't bother to let him know who the friend was and he hadn't asked. The last thing she wanted was a confrontation with him right now and he surely would have given her one had he known her dinner companion was House. They hadn't been getting along too well lately and she didn't want to add anything to that. She shook her head as she walked out the doors that led to freedom, pushing thoughts of Chase aside for now.
Once outside, she remembered that she had parked at the back of the parking lot and shivered as she made her way to her car, cursing herself for not parking closer. She was about to open her door when she thought she heard a noise in the trees behind her and spun around to see if anyone was there. A cold chill, not completely caused by the cold air, came over her and she quickly got in and started the engine, noticing that her windshield was iced over. Dammit! She said out loud. She didn't want to get back out and scrape her windows but she couldn't see. She dug through a pile of stuff on her back seat and found her little blue ice scraper. She jumped out and scraped just enough ice so she could see to drive to her destination, only three blocks away. She then quickly climbed back in, locked her doors and headed in the direction of the restaurant. It took a minute to shake the feeling that someone had been watching her.
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The man stood very still as Cameron's green eyes peered threw the darkness trying to see what or who had made the noise. The cool breeze had blown her perfume his way and he breathed her scent in deeply. It was all he could do to not let her know he was there, waiting for her. Instead, he stood very still behind the thick grove of trees that lined the backside of the parking lot and watched her in silence. The noise she heard was actually a raccoon that was muddling its way through the trees. He had been waiting for her for half an hour when she finally made her way out the doors. She was leaving later than normal tonight. Over the past few weeks, he had grown accustomed to her comings and goings and knew precisely what days or nights she worked and exactly when she would walk out the hospital doors to go home. He even knew that on Fridays she and her surgeon boyfriend would leave together. She was very predictable, he thought.
It amused him that she had no idea he even existed, except in passing and yet he already knew so much about her. Sometimes she would smile his way or say hello, causing his heart to stop. She was so beautiful. He wanted to tell her, but it wasn't time for that yet. He wasn't ready. He had more planning to do before they did meet, before he revealed his love to her. Everything had to be perfect. She deserved perfection.
As she drove away, he slowly stepped out of the darkness and walked over to his dark blue car and lit a cigarette. He was looking forward to going home to continue planning for when he and Dr. Allison Cameron would be together.
